By Gen 

The Emma Hayes era of the US Women’s National Team has got off to a great start with strong friendly wins leading into a perfect record in the group stage of the 2024 Olympics, scoring nine goals total and qualifying for the quarterfinals against Japan. All three of their victories have come in convincing fashion and were spearheaded by their new-look front three consisting of Trinity Rodman, Mallory Swanson and Sophia Smith, a trio fans and media are dubbing “The Holy Trinity”. Between the three of them they have scored seven goals and combined for a further four assists, helped by a combination of effective play and tactics devised by Hayes that are well-suited to their talents.

The USA’s second game against Germany was arguably their best performance of the 3. They ran out 4-1 victors against the 2022 Euros finalists with two goals from Smith and one each from Swanson and late substitute Lynn Williams. It was a well-coached and well-executed game from the USWNT, their winning mentality and identity finally on its way back after a lacklustre 4 years under former head coach Vlatko Andonovski. I will be breaking down how the USA set up against Germany and how this contributed to their win.

The USWNT have long played with a 4-3-3 formation, the setup forming part of their on-field identity for decades. It has always been generally accepted amongst American soccer circles that this was a winning formula that didn’t need to be changed, and players were often groomed into positions that suited this; Tobin Heath played midfield for the University of North Carolina before being converted to a winger to suit the USWNT’s style, and Rose Lavelle was often put in a similar situation under Andonovski due to a lack of left-footed wingers and an abundance of midfielders.

In years gone by, this formation was quite strict and rigid. This time around, Hayes is utilising the 4-3-3 slightly differently and using positional rotation to unlock her players and create overloads in attack and defence.

In possession, Hayes decided to adopt a 3-2-5 to make the most of her attacking weapons. As shown here, Hayes had Davidson, Girma and Fox forming a back 3, Coffey and Horan holding in midfield, and a front five typically consisting of (L-R): Dunn, Swanson, Smith, Lavelle, and Rodman. This setup was seen mostly in moments of stability and build up for the USWNT. A major reason why this setup worked so well is the versatility of the squad, especially those forming the front five. 

Dunn, listed as a forward on the roster, has played in almost every position on the pitch in career spanning over a decade, even winning NWSL MVP playing as a winger. Dunn is the key to this system: while she can play on the wing and attack like a career winger, she is an exceptional 1v1 defender and affords the USWNT defensive stability should they be victim to a counterattack. Jenna Nighswonger came on for the second half against Australia and played this same role, her history as a winger and an attacking midfielder allowing her to get forward as well as she can defend.

Swanson offers a profile that combines the skill and precision of a midfielder with the attacking prowess and speed of a winger. She operates just inside of Dunn, occupying the space between the fullback and the centre back. In the 2024 NWSL season, Swanson has often played as a 10 for the Chicago Red Stars, enabling her to drop into the positions left open by Lavelle and carry the ball forward towards the defence. The combination of Dunn and Swanson is very important to the success of the USWNT so far as it has allowed Swanson to seek out the ball centrally without compromising real estate on the wing.

Smith has been deployed centrally in the first three games, similar to her role with the Portland Thorns, but has been given a license to rotate, mostly with Swanson. It’s worked – Smith has scored 2 important goals – and the freedom she has been offered has enabled the front 5 to rotate with each other while still holding a solid line.

Rodman has been played the furthest to the right, and in possession hugs the sideline and is often the deepest of the front 5. This is testament to her defensive ability, which she has honed in her years at the Washington Spirit, as well as her ability to create from wide positions through dribbling and crossing.

Arguably, the glue that holds this front 5 together is Rose Lavelle. The Cincinnati native has been quietly exceptional for the USWNT, not registering any goals or assists but instead being often playing a key role in goals, including the pre-assist for Smith’s first goal against Germany. In Hayes’s tactical setup, Lavelle sits in between Rodman and Smith, often dropping a little deeper in possession to receive the ball. This is seen in the buildup to the USA’s first goal against Germany. Interestingly, Lavelle and Rodman combined in almost the exact same way twice in thirty seconds, the second effort leading to Smith’s goal.

As seen here, Lavelle drops from the front 5 to draw Germany’s left CB into a challenge with her, freeing space in behind for Trinity to run into.

She does the same thing from a slightly higher position half a minute later, and this time the centreback doesn’t commit as much. This is a net negative for Germany, as not only do they have Lavelle covered insufficiently, but the half-commitment of the CB creates too much space in behind for Rodman. Rose essentially forces 4 players to ball watch, having taken them out of the play by committing to her run and creating space for Rodman to run into.

The rest of the goal is brilliantly well-worked by Rodman and finished smartly by Smith, with an important decoy run by Swanson. The German defence, including the goalkeeper, can only see Swanson and Rodman in front of them. Smith has expertly positioned herself to be out of the line of sight of every immediate defender, whilst Swanson is taking up space in the most dangerous position in the box.

Smith holds her run whilst Swanson accelerates towards the 6-yard line, at which point Rodman drills a ball behind Swanson into the large gap she has created which reaches Smith with no hinderance and the ball ends up in the back of the net.

Having gone one goal up very early on, the USWNT’s game plan is extremely clear for the rest of the game. Giulia Gwinn’s goal in the 22nd minute was the only blemish on an otherwise dominant first half, coming off a badly defended throw-in in their defensive half. If I had one gripe with the US’s setup from this game, it’s that they didn’t adequately defend the dangerous corners. The midfield and attack left too much space for Gwinn to sit unopposed and alone for at least fifteen metres in a dangerous position. In this situation, every midfielder should have shifted one player over to quell that threat instead of committing two spare players to the area around the ball. A similar defensive mishap led to a chance a little later on which required a Naeher save to keep out of the net.

Bouts of German possession in the first half put Hayes’s off-the-ball setup on display. For this Olympics, Hayes has preferred a 4-4-2 and occasionally 4-2-4 press to create pressure high and win the ball back quickly. As seen here in the 38th minute, the most common iteration of this press saw the back 4 as on paper, then Swanson-Coffey-Horan-Rodman holding the middle and Smith-Lavelle up top. Pressing with Lavelle and Smith as a high unit allows for the quickest transition into their attacking positions, as well as a more rigid, compressed press than playing Lavelle behind Smith would allow for.

As opposed to pressing in a 4-3-3, which has more immediate pressure on the centre backs but less reinforcement, the 4-4-2 press creates two organised, formidable lines that almost invites Germany to break them down. It also saves energy as opposed to the 4-3-3 press as the midfield is more spread and the front 2 have less responsibility. At times when they wanted to apply more pressure, Rodman and Swanson came forward and joined Lavelle and Smith to make a 4-front press, matching the German defence man for man and forcing them to play over or through them.

As an aside, the most curious setup the USWNT used was this 3-1-2-4 ‘formation’ they used for a couple of minutes at the start of the game. Horan drops back into the RCB, leaving Coffey alone in the midfield, with Lavelle and Swanson in between the lines of the German midfield and Dunn-Smith-Rodman-Fox across the top. This setup allowed the USWNT’s best attacking players to all spearhead the offence whilst the orchestrators sat back.

Some final notes from the game:

- Rotation amongst the front 5 was frequent. Often times Lavelle and Swanson would swap sides, and on occasion Smith rotated out further to the wing and let Dunn hold more central.

- Tournaments like the Olympics need a bit of good fortune sometimes, and the second USWNT goal was a combination of luck and determination. A long Tierna Davidson clearance to Sophia Smith and a powerful shot from the striker led to Mal Swanson getting on the end of Berger’s save and slotting it home. As former USWNT players Tobin Heath and Christen Press mentioned on the latest episode of the re-cap show, Swanson was potentially the most underrated player from this game and was crucial to the win. Press mentioned that a run like the one Swanson made shows that “this is a team that believes they can win”, and Heath named the Chicago Red Stars forward as her player of the match for the “little things”.

- Set pieces, set pieces, set pieces – tournaments like the Olympics make set pieces extremely important, and the USA capitalised from a corner in the 44th minute. They played short, patient passes in the corner area for about twenty seconds, letting the German defence in the box switch off slightly before Crystal Dunn played in a looping cross that eventually found Sophia Smith, whose deflected shot found the back of the net for their third goal. The second-phase play by the USA was great to watch and showed patience we haven’t seen from this team for a while.

- How about Lynn Williams? The Gotham forward continues to make the most of her chance, having come into the 18 as a replacement for the injured Cat Macario, scoring a game-sealing goal in the 89th minute. A Mal Swanson assist – who else – created ample space for Williams to aim her shot and she did so brilliantly after only seven minutes on the pitch, repaying Hayes’s faith in her.

The USWNT were the best team from Group B by a significant margin. Hayes has this team playing a brand of magical football we really haven’t witnessed from this group arguably since 2019. The front three are on fire, a combined seven goals speaking for itself, and the team is clicking in a way that makes them look absolutely unstoppable. I love the way Hayes has set up the team; the former Chelsea manager has long been a visionary in women's football and this is no different. A tough test against Japan tonight awaits, but if this team plays anything like they have for the first three games, I can’t see anyone stopping them on their quest for a gold medal.